Barry Ten

Just had a very straightforward experience ordering some Viessmann bits from Modelbanhunion in Germany. Reasonable postage, good tracking information and the parcel arrived a day after entering the UK.

Pushing on with the B17...

I needed a curved turnout for the front siding on Paynestown, so I took the Finetrax sleeper base and cut notches into it along one side to make it flexible. I then built it as per the instructions but with a bit of a bend in the desired direction. It doesn't correspond to any sensible turnout geometry but it worked as intended although in hindsight I needn't have made it quite so sharp. I illustrate this only to show that a hamfisted bodger with no real prior experience in tracklaying can build and adapt the Finetrax stuff, although there are many things I'd do differently next time.

I built a small GWR branch terminus using Finetrax kits: I built one point first then tested a variety of stock through it, mostly US stuff from the last 20 years as I didn't have much UK N at the start of the project. I didn't find anything that wouldn't go through. Since then I've acquired a few GWR locos and rolling stock from Farish, Sonic and Dapol, all of which works well through the crossings. That said, my American layout has over 50 points and several scale miles of track, and if I was starting again I'd probably still go down the Peco Code 55 (or possibly Atlas) route.

I've had a go with this, just using some silver from the tin:

Although you won't find a warmer place than Mountain Ash on Dec 31st for the annual Nos Galan road races:

I'm grateful to C-Rail for the early containers and liveries they've now done. I wonder if any others are feasible - eg Containerway ones? I don't know if these could be done using the existing moulds but they would add some extra variety to be mixed in with early Freightliner containers. I've done some CTi ones using the C-Rail kits and decals.

The ML one is the ribbed type, not the earlier style. Here are some I picked up at Warley:

6990 Witherslack Hall pulls into King's Hintock.

Not much happening in the yard as 7233 clanks through King's Hintock with a slow goods.

It's a camping coach, yes.

B17 with main coat of paint on. I spent as long preparing and masking it as I did all the work before.

I did a painting based on the 1937 photo, which should give an idea of the setting:

That double-page colour photo of the whole station is, in my view, one of the very best railway photographs ever taken.

My wife and I used to have the same "there must be a piece missing" conversation so often that in the end we got a post-it and stuck "There are no pieces missing!" on the cupboard above the jigsaw table.

Some overhead wiring has appeared at Aberdare over Christmas. They were certainly busy with machinery moving up and down the line on Christmas day.

I've been working on a B17. The tender seemed to be missing from the kit.

I've started a 1/72nd Academy B17G which has been in my stash for years. I tend to build in 1/48 or larger but I can see the benefits of 1/72nd here, it's much easier to work with on a small workbench and it won't take anywhere near as much room as the 1/48 Monogram B17 I built as a kid.

It's the tall LSWR chimney as originally fitted to the Urie S15s. I had trouble figuring out the timeline for when alteration to the shorter chimney happened, but if I understood it properly, some locos could have run with the tall ones and smoke deflectors.

A most enjoyable issue, some cracking and inspiring modelling and very nice "write-ups" using proper English and that. Particularly enjoyed seeing the snaps of Mr Williams' Hereford project, and look forward to more on that. I notice no facilities for turning locos so presumably engines will depart and arrive "light" from an off-scene MPD.

Some of the pictures I took of mine under construction survived the RMweb image crash. This was from back in 2015 and was my first go at both soldering white metal (as well as brass to white metal) and valve gear. I got her out for a spin last week and was pleased that she ran well straight out of storage, although one of the front steps needed repair.

A couple of quiet moments at King's Hintock as Mogul 5328 arrives with an early evening stopping train.

That makes perfectly senselylode. Deep joy.

I tend to be fairly relaxed about shifting English usage but one that does grate with me lately is "aircrafts". Has it now been decided that "aircraft" is singular only, or is it simply ignorance? I've seen it employed in both BBC news reports and in The Guardian.

It might depend on whether it's a Urie or Maunsell variant but I found I needed to remove a great deal of brass from the frames to get the motion bracket to sit low enough (or as low as I could get it).